Shooting birds with a Zoom lens

"Ron Recer" wrote in message
...
"celcius" wrote in message
...
Hi all!

I recently bought a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM fot my 5D Mark
II. I shoot RAW.

I was told by a photgrapher that it's best to use M or Av and not Tv.

I was told to set my camera to M and ISO to auto. This way, I could
choose the f stop as well as the speed and the camera would choose the
proper ISO. Since the Mark II has pretty clean ISO to at leasrt 3200,
this would do the trick. However, re-reading the book, I find that on M,
the max ISO is 400. I looked into the preferences, but could not find a
way around.

At this juncture, when I'm not sure what ISO to use when birds fly to and
from an illuminated background (against a blue sky) to a darker one
(against trees in a creek), I shoot on Av and auto ISO. It works well,
but I wonder if there's another way of approaching this.

Thanks for any enlightment.

Marcel
I have taken a lot of shots of flying birds unsing the Canon EF 100-400mm
f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM with a Canon 10D and a Canon 40D.

On sunny days I set up where the sun is at my back, set the ISO at 400,
turn off the IS, set the f stop to f8 or a little more open so that I
achieve a shutter speed of 1/2000 to 1/3000 of a second, and leave AF on
using AI Servo. I seem to do pretty good using these settings. You may
or may not like them.

Ron

Thanks Ron.
I take it you're on Av and you would set the ISO as to get a convenient
rapid speed. Am I right?
Two questions:
1- Why do you turn the IS off?
2- Is there a reason why you would set to f8 particularly? Is this lens
better at f8?
Thanks,
Marcel

celcius wrote:
Hi all!

I recently bought a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM fot my 5D Mark
II. I shoot RAW.

I was told by a photgrapher that it's best to use M or Av and not Tv.

I was told to set my camera to M and ISO to auto. This way, I could
choose the f stop as well as the speed and the camera would choose the
proper ISO. Since the Mark II has pretty clean ISO to at leasrt 3200,
this would do the trick. However, re-reading the book, I find that on M,
the max ISO is 400. I looked into the preferences, but could not find a
way around.

At this juncture, when I'm not sure what ISO to use when birds fly to
and from an illuminated background (against a blue sky) to a darker one
(against trees in a creek), I shoot on Av and auto ISO. It works well,
but I wonder if there's another way of approaching this.

Marcel:

I'd go fully manual for birds on the wing; focus at infinity; pretty
wide open, shutter ca. 1/500. Low ISO. One wants a touch of OoF with the
wings, but not a big blur.

Pan with the flight. Lighting conditions will change ever so slightly
over the track you're able to get, so you should have a few superb
exposures of each flight.

Good luck!

--
john mcwilliams

"John McWilliams" wrote in message
...
celcius wrote:
Hi all!

I recently bought a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM fot my 5D Mark
II. I shoot RAW.

I was told by a photgrapher that it's best to use M or Av and not Tv.

I was told to set my camera to M and ISO to auto. This way, I could
choose the f stop as well as the speed and the camera would choose the
proper ISO. Since the Mark II has pretty clean ISO to at leasrt 3200,
this would do the trick. However, re-reading the book, I find that on M,
the max ISO is 400. I looked into the preferences, but could not find a
way around.

At this juncture, when I'm not sure what ISO to use when birds fly to and
from an illuminated background (against a blue sky) to a darker one
(against trees in a creek), I shoot on Av and auto ISO. It works well,
but I wonder if there's another way of approaching this.

Marcel:

I'd go fully manual for birds on the wing; focus at infinity; pretty wide
open, shutter ca. 1/500. Low ISO. One wants a touch of OoF with the wings,
but not a big blur.

Pan with the flight. Lighting conditions will change ever so slightly over
the track you're able to get, so you should have a few superb exposures of
each flight.

Good luck!

Thanks John!
That's also a great idea!
I was encouraged to experiment, that's surely something to try. I might miss
at first but as they say, practice makes perfect.
Best regards,
Marcel

--
john mcwilliams

On 09-12-08 7:38 , celcius wrote:
"Alan Browne" wrote in message
...
On 09-12-07 17:49 , celcius wrote:
"Alan Browne" wrote in message
...
On 09-12-07 13:59 , celcius wrote:
Hi all!

I recently bought a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM fot my 5D
Mark
II. I shoot RAW.

I was told by a photgrapher that it's best to use M or Av and not Tv.

I was told to set my camera to M and ISO to auto. This way, I could
choose the f stop as well as the speed and the camera would choose the
proper ISO. Since the Mark II has pretty clean ISO to at leasrt 3200,
this would do the trick. However, re-reading the book, I find that
on M,
the max ISO is 400. I looked into the preferences, but could not
find a
way around.

At this juncture, when I'm not sure what ISO to use when birds fly to
and from an illuminated background (against a blue sky) to a darker
one
(against trees in a creek), I shoot on Av and auto ISO. It works well,
but I wonder if there's another way of approaching this.

For birds I would think Tv would be more important as at least most of
the time you will want to freeze motion by selecting a minimum shutter
speed regardless of ISO. For your lens, shooting birds, I'd think
about 1/200 to 1/100 or faster (at 400mm) with IS engaged.

(This really depends on how large you intend to print, the larger the
print, the faster the shutter speed required).

Bird shooting is a metering challenge, which is why I would shoot them
manual exposure and according to the light falling on them rather than
by reflective metering off of them or their overall environment. Meter
a nearby midtone object (rough bark on a maple tree is close) _in the
same light_ and if the birds are dark/black, open up another 1/3 to
1/2 of a stop to bring out feather detail.

Take full advantage of the high ISO quality of your camera to shoot
with a slightly closed down aperture (f8 ish) and the fastest shutter
speed you can manage. Say ISO 800 - 1600, f/8 and let the shutter
speed fall where it may. For ISO 800 f/8 you should get 1/3200 in
sunlight and 1/800 under thin overcast ... shooting the shadow side of
the bird would be about 1/200 in sunlight.

I don't understand this. It seems here you're in Av where you set F8 and
automatic ISO or is it otherwise? Perhaps you set to f8, and ISO to a
numer, say 3200 and let the speed fall where it will?

That was my first stance (for motion control, Tv should be your mode),
but how I would shoot anything outdoor is always based on the light
_falling on the subject_ not the light reflected off of it. That's why
a midtone reference is used - not the subject.

(You could also meter the snow in the same light with the needle @ 2.0
to 2.3 or so - experiment away).



Note that people have been making great bird shots at ISO 100 or less
for a long time albeit with faster lenses and by pushing the film a
stop on occasion. With your camera, the "band" is just much fatter and
easier to hit.

Look at Bret's (and other's) bird photos on pbase as well. The EXIF
info should give you a lot of guidance.

Thanks Alan, but you must be fast and quite knowledgeable to make all
these decisions when a bunch of birds start flying:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmar/...7622823690341/
Somehow, in my mind, I have to set it up right before the fact.

Yes!

OK. If I understansd you correctly, I set the camera to Tv. Then, I set
the speed to say, 250th sec.
Ok I'll go to Pbase and see.
Marcel

Just meter something neutral grey in the same light as the birds
manually. That should do it. Maybe 1/3 or so over if the birds are dark.

Make the decisions before the birds fly. The light doesn't change.

The values above are baseline "sunny-16" derived and any photographer
should be able to do that in their head (or on at least on their
fingers - stops up/down trades (reciprocity)).

Thanks Alan!
By the way, I had completely forgotten the "sunny 16".
Many tend to set the aperture at f8 and I was wondering why. And why not
f11.
Thanks to you, I went back to the "sunny f16" after a Google search.
I admit although I have a nice camera and good lenses, I'm still
struggling with much of the basics in Photography.
Nowadays, with automatic controls, one tends to forget the basics... and
USE them. ;-)

Well, for the sake of clarity, sunny-16 does not mean shooting at f/16.
It's just a convenient way of remembering "f/16, 1/100, ISO 100" in
sunlight. From there you can determine any other reciprocal needed.

Likewise if you're under thin overcast, then drop a stop. Heavy
overcast, drop 3 stops from s-16 and so on.

"celcius" wrote in message
...
"Ron Recer" wrote in message
...
"celcius" wrote in message
...
Hi all!

I recently bought a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM fot my 5D Mark
II. I shoot RAW.

I was told by a photgrapher that it's best to use M or Av and not Tv.

I was told to set my camera to M and ISO to auto. This way, I could
choose the f stop as well as the speed and the camera would choose the
proper ISO. Since the Mark II has pretty clean ISO to at leasrt 3200,
this would do the trick. However, re-reading the book, I find that on M,
the max ISO is 400. I looked into the preferences, but could not find a
way around.

At this juncture, when I'm not sure what ISO to use when birds fly to
and from an illuminated background (against a blue sky) to a darker one
(against trees in a creek), I shoot on Av and auto ISO. It works well,
but I wonder if there's another way of approaching this.

Thanks for any enlightment.

Marcel
I have taken a lot of shots of flying birds unsing the Canon EF 100-400mm
f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM with a Canon 10D and a Canon 40D.

On sunny days I set up where the sun is at my back, set the ISO at 400,
turn off the IS, set the f stop to f8 or a little more open so that I
achieve a shutter speed of 1/2000 to 1/3000 of a second, and leave AF on
using AI Servo. I seem to do pretty good using these settings. You may
or may not like them.

Ron

Thanks Ron.
I take it you're on Av and you would set the ISO as to get a convenient
rapid speed. Am I right?
Two questions:
1- Why do you turn the IS off?
2- Is there a reason why you would set to f8 particularly? Is this lens
better at f8?
Thanks,
Marcel
I sent you an email with a few photos attached along with the settings
portion of their exif file.

Ron

"Ron Recer" wrote in message
...
"celcius" wrote in message
...
"Ron Recer" wrote in message
...
"celcius" wrote in message
...
Hi all!

I recently bought a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM fot my 5D
Mark II. I shoot RAW.

I was told by a photgrapher that it's best to use M or Av and not Tv.

I was told to set my camera to M and ISO to auto. This way, I could
choose the f stop as well as the speed and the camera would choose the
proper ISO. Since the Mark II has pretty clean ISO to at leasrt 3200,
this would do the trick. However, re-reading the book, I find that on
M, the max ISO is 400. I looked into the preferences, but could not
find a way around.

At this juncture, when I'm not sure what ISO to use when birds fly to
and from an illuminated background (against a blue sky) to a darker one
(against trees in a creek), I shoot on Av and auto ISO. It works well,
but I wonder if there's another way of approaching this.

Thanks for any enlightment.

Marcel
I have taken a lot of shots of flying birds unsing the Canon EF
100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM with a Canon 10D and a Canon 40D.

On sunny days I set up where the sun is at my back, set the ISO at 400,
turn off the IS, set the f stop to f8 or a little more open so that I
achieve a shutter speed of 1/2000 to 1/3000 of a second, and leave AF on
using AI Servo. I seem to do pretty good using these settings. You may
or may not like them.

Ron

Thanks Ron.
I take it you're on Av and you would set the ISO as to get a convenient
rapid speed. Am I right?
Two questions:
1- Why do you turn the IS off?
2- Is there a reason why you would set to f8 particularly? Is this lens
better at f8?
Thanks,
Marcel
I sent you an email with a few photos attached along with the settings
portion of their exif file.

Ron
Thanks Ron!
I'll get back to you as soon as I digest nthis.
Take are,
Marcel